Before London, Paris and Istanbul, Hakan Ozel Learned Hospitality at Home

His latest Shangri-La appointment puts three flagship hotels under his operational oversight. The journey began with visiting relatives, his mother’s cooking, and a household that knew how to make people feel welcome.

Long before Hakan Ozel became responsible for luxury hotels, he watched his family welcome people into their home.

Relatives arrived from other cities and countries. Some stayed for days; others stayed for weeks. In a 2023 interview, he remembered the attention his family gave them and his mother’s cooking, particularly the Bosnian börek he still missed.

Those memories help explain a career that can otherwise look like a succession of hotels and titles. For Ozel, the idea of looking after guests preceded the profession. As tourism expanded in Turkey during the 1990s, he decided to study hotel management.

Nearly three decades into his career, that decision has brought him to a new assignment: Vice President, Operations for London, Paris and Istanbul at Shangri-La Group, overseeing Shangri-La The Shard, London; Shangri-La Paris; and Shangri-La Bosphorus, Istanbul.

Hakan has more than 28 years of international experience, including over two decades with the company that is taking on a new portfolio, rather than an executive arriving from outside the group.

Fifteen years before the first general manager’s office

Ozel graduated from Bilkent University’s Department of Tourism and Hotel Management in 1998. The university confirms his graduating class in its alumni coverage.

He has said that he began professional hotel work in a rank-and-file position that year and became a Shangri-La general manager in 2013, fifteen years later.

His early career developed through food and beverage management, with postings in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt before his Shangri-La career. Subsequent assignments took him across China, Indonesia, and Oman.

Food and beverage provides a demanding introduction to hotel operations. Service happens in front of the guest, while purchasing, preparation, staffing, and timing must come together behind the scenes. A delay or a missed detail becomes visible quickly.

That background offers useful context for the executive he became: someone whose route to broader responsibility began close to the daily delivery of hospitality.

China became a defining chapter

Ozel’s career within Shangri-La involved more than moving between established hotels. It included helping properties begin their lives.

His LinkedIn profile identifies him as the opening resident manager of Shangri-La Wenzhou in 2009. It also records his role as opening general manager of Shangri-La Tianjin, which opened on August 8, 2014, following approximately eight months of pre-opening work.

By 2016, Ozel had been appointed general manager of China World Summit Wing, Beijing.

Dubai brought a wider stage

Ozel joined Shangri-La Dubai as general manager in 2017, according to his 2024 interview with Journal des Palaces. In 2023, his responsibilities expanded to an area operations role.

The ambition changed along the way

Speaking to Journal des Palaces in 2024, he described the intensity of becoming a general manager for the first time: the desire to succeed and deliver results. With experience, he found greater satisfaction in helping other people succeed.

That shift is particularly relevant to his new role. An executive overseeing several hotels depends on the judgment and capability of leaders who cannot all be in the same room.

His earlier explanation of management reflects that thinking. In his 2023 interview, he described encouraging departmental leaders to make decisions and stepping in as a coach or mentor when they needed help.

His public LinkedIn post marking twenty years with Shangri-La offers another perspective.

Three hotels, three different settings

His new portfolio carries considerable visibility.

In London, Shangri-La The Shard begins on level 34 and places its hospitality high above the city.

Alongside it sit Shangri-La Paris and Shangri-La Bosphorus, Istanbul. The appointment gives Ozel responsibility for improving operational execution, commercial performance, and the guest experience across all three.

For a Turkish hotelier whose career has taken him through Asia and the Middle East, Istanbul adds a connection to his home country. London and Paris extend the assignment across two further major luxury travel markets.

The task is substantial: support a consistent Shangri-La experience while allowing each hotel’s team to respond to its own guests and setting.

The next chapter begins with a familiar idea

Ozel’s appointment can be read through its geography, Turkey, China, Oman, Indonesia, Dubai, and now a portfolio spanning London, Paris, and Istanbul.

It can also be read through the work: food and beverage, resident management, hotel openings, general management, and wider operational leadership.

But the earliest part of his story gives those movements a human thread. Before he chose the profession, he had seen people travel a long way and feel comfortable staying in his family’s home.

His responsibilities have changed enormously since then. The purpose he describes remains recognizable: helping people feel well looked after, and helping his colleagues deliver that feeling.